As some of you know I always loose my mobile phone charger, don't have the right adapter or just don't have enough free power plugs left at my desk (yes there to many phones, switches and more in my room....).

Lately I bought this cool cable fro my Nokia phone:

You can actually plug in your hand phone into your PC or Notebook for a re-charge. Did you know that? Is that an old story for you?

You can by the thing online: ThinkGeek for 9 USD

Cheers
Daniel

I compiled you a list of the 9 most important reasons (could not find 10.. smile) which influenced the large deployment of VoIP. This list is purely based on my opinion (no Gartner report.... smile) and experience as manager and software engineer.
Would be great if you share your view on this topic!

So let's start with the list...

1. The WWW or Internet
The amazingly fast growing internet has been one of the main contributor for concepts like VoIP.

2. SIP
A long time ago there was H323. But this protocol hadn't the feature to lead VoIP to success. Then SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) was born by Henry Sinnreich the godfather of SIP. This protocol took the best from the existing HTPP an quickly advanced into teh most common protocol for transmitting voice and video.

3. G723, G729
Because of this audio codec’s, user could make VoIP calls even from low bandwidth internet connections.
Until today, G729 is the most used codec by telecom operators and VoIP vendor.

4. Competition
Since VoIP, basically everyone can start his own telecommunication company. It's technically possible to start a ITSP-Business in a couple of hours....
We can see many VOIP providers mushrooming in Asia. This is good and the time will tell who will win and loose. MCSB will be on the winner side. :-)
Competition is driving innovation.

5. Free-Call's - A students’ dream

During my student's days i was always looking for innovative ways to save and earn money. We always thought how cool would it be to be on the phone with a girl for hours and don't have to pay for it (more money for beer left... smile).

Today it's not a dream anymore, i can call my wife and kids for free anywhere in the world.

6. Asterisk
You can download a enterprise PBX system for free from the web!!!
Mark Spencer gave us a very coooool software based telephone solution.
Asterisk will shake up the enterprise PBX market.

7. Jeff Pulver and VON

The guru of VoIP is definitively Jeff Pulver. He is the founder of Vonage, Free World Dialup and many more VoIP related companies.
"He the man".

8. Then we have Skype
You all know I’m not a lover of Skype but i have to admit that Skype "just works" and has spread the VoIP message into the home user market. Most people still associate VoIP with Skype.

9. Broadband

This is the most important reason for a wide adaption of VoIP (sadly we are behind here in Malaysia).

Conclusion
I think that 9 and 8 are the key points if not "tipping points" for VoIP. Since Skype even my wife can talk about VoIP....

Let's hope that broadband will significantly improve here in the region and help us growth our MCSB VoIP business.

Daniel

Our Sanjay posted a link to an interesting white paper in our MCSB-Forum which covers current VoIP security issues and countermeasure.

The link: VoIP-Issues and Countermeasures

Regards
Daniel

Hi Colleagues

A couple of months ago Paul Lim recommend a very interesting book to us (MCSB - Management Team): "The Blue Ocean Strategy".
The book is written by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

From Publishers Weekly:
Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes their vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." The only reason more big companies don't set sail for them, they suggest, is that "the dominant focus of strategy work over the past twenty-five years has been on competition-based red ocean strategies"-i.e., finding new ways to cut costs and grow revenue by taking away market share from the competition. With this groundbreaking book, Kim and Mauborgne-both professors at France's INSEAD, the second largest business school in the world-aim to repair that bias. Using dozens of examples-from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks-they present the tools and frameworks they've developed specifically for the task of analyzing blue oceans. They urge companies to "value innovation" that focuses on "utility, price, and cost positions," to "create and capture new demand" and to "focus on the big picture, not the numbers." And while their heavyweight analytical tools may be of real use only to serious strategy planners, their overall vision will inspire entrepreneurs of all stripes, and most of their ideas are presented in a direct, jargon-free manner. Theirs is not the typical business management book's vague call to action; it is a precise, actionable plan for changing the way companies do business with one resounding piece of advice: swim for open waters.

MCSB's future strategy must be based on blue-ocean markets, why should we fight with our competitors if we don't have too? Try to think out of the box. How can we differentiate? How can we get "spotted"?

Our phoneCUBE solutions are build arround a blue-ocean strategy.
(we define our market, pricing, SLA etc...).

opsCONTROL the next solution in the pipeline wil also be based on a blue-ocean stratey.

Would be great if you read this book, so we can talk on the same level of understanding.

You can get from a local bookstore or www.amazon.com

Book-Details:

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (February 3, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591396190
ISBN-13: 978-1591396192

Cheers
Daniel

In our days you can get so many things connected to the USB port of your PC. Fan's, lamps, phones.....

Lately i saw this one:

It is four and a half inches long, and two inches wide. It comes with a nice gift box and a cleaning brush. You can recharge it via computer.

As time passes, the galaxy's entire inventory of gadgets will maybe come out in a USB-enbaled version.

Here a cool USB website: www.everythingusb.com

Cheers
Daniel